Fran Weller, age 8, of Shreveport, La., for her question:
HOW CAN YOU CONTROL FLEAS?
A flea is a small, wingless insect that lives on mammals and birds and sucks blood for food. Fleas are dangerous pests because they can carry the germs that cause diseases.
Cat and dog fleas are great pests. Cleanliness and proper care of pets are the best protection against fleas and the number one rule for obtaining control.
Dogs that have fleas should be scrubbed with derris soaps, which contain an insecticide. Dusting pets with derris kills the insects.
Pet owners can also guard against fleas by changing their animals' bedding frequently. They can destroy the larvae of fleas by spraying or dusting the pets' quarters with an approved insecticide.
A flea has flat sides and a head much smaller than the rest of the body. Strong, spiny legs help fleas move quickly and easily through the hairs or feathers of their host. They puncture the skin with their beaks to get blood.
Felas not only live on cats and dogs. They also live on man, rats, birds, horses, poultry, rabbits and many wild animals. A few kinds live only on certain types of animals. But most kinds pass readily from animal to man and from animal to animal.
Fleas leave the host as soon as it dies because they must have blood for food.
The common European or human flea is about one eighth of an inch long. It lives in the folds of clothing. It drops its eggs about the house instead of attaching them to clothing. The larvae look like maggots. When they become adults, they seek a host.
Some persons seem to attract fleas more than others do, and some become sensitive to the bites. The skin around the bite becomes inflamed in such persons.
The chigoe, another kind of flea, is native to South America. But it has spread to Africa and many temperate regions.
The chigoe female burrows into the skin to lay eggs. These insects cause ulcers to form on the skin. The flea must be removed before the ulcer will heal.
Rat, cat and dog fleas may become serious pests. They lay many tiny oval white eggs on the animal or in their sleeping places. When the eggs hatch, the larvae crawl into bedding and into cracks in the floor. They spin their cocoons in dust and appear as adults about two weeks later.
The chigoe is sometimes called jigger or chigger, though it differs from the creatures called by those names in the United States.
The female chigoe flea burrows into the skin of a man, dog or pig. It usually attacks humans between their fingers or toes, or on the bottoms of their feet.
A true chigger or jigger is a harvest mite rather than a flea.